Experiencing Nature through Immersive Virtual Environments: Environmental Perceptions, Physical Engagement, and Affective Responses during a Simulated Nature Walk.

By combining physical activity and exposure to nature, green exercise can provide additional health benefits compared to physical activity alone. Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE) have emerged as a potentially valuable supplement to environmental and behavioral research, and might also provide new approaches to green exercise promotion. However, it is unknown to what extent green exercise in IVE can provide psychophysiological responses similar to those experienced in real natural environments. In this study, 26 healthy adults underwent three experimental conditions: nature walk, sitting-IVE, and treadmill-IVE. The nature walk took place on a paved trail along a large river. In the IVE conditions, the participants wore a head-mounted display with headphones reproducing a 360° video and audio of the nature walk, either sitting on a chair or walking on a manually driven treadmill. Measurements included environmental perceptions (presence and perceived environmental restorativeness - PER), physical engagement (walking speed, heart rate, and perceived exertion), and affective responses (enjoyment and affect). Additionally, qualitative information was collected through open-ended questions. The participants rated the IVEs with satisfactory levels of 'being there' and 'sense of reality,' but also reported discomforts such as 'flatness,' 'movement lag' and 'cyber sickness.' With equivalent heart rate and walking speed, participants reported higher perceived exertion in the IVEs than in the nature walk. The nature walk was associated with high enjoyment and enhanced affect. However, despite equivalent ratings of PER in the nature walk and in the IVEs, the latter were perceived as less enjoyable and gave rise to a poorer affect. Presence and PER did not differ between the two IVEs, although in the treadmill-IVE the negative affective responses had slightly smaller magnitude than in the sitting-IVE. In both the IVEs, the negative affective responses were mainly associated with cyber sickness, whereas PER was positively associated with enjoyment. From the qualitative analysis, it emerged that poor postural control and lack of a holistic sensory experience can also hinder immersion in the IVE. The results indicate that IVE technology might in future be a useful instrument in green exercise research and promotion, but only if image quality and cyber sickness can be addressed.

Time for Me: the arts as therapy in postnatal depression.

Time for Me describes a creative arts group for mothers with children under two years of age, who were experiencing mild to moderate postnatal depression or anxiety. This paper reports on findings from a small-scale qualitative study designed to explore and evaluate the extent to which the brief intervention of eight weekly sessions of creative arts was able to support these women. Traditionally, severe postnatal depression has been treated with medication or cognitive behavioural therapy and in mild to moderate postnatal depression non-directive counselling ('the listening visit'), extra social and emotional support and group psychological therapies have been used. More recently, the use of complementary therapies in the treatment of depression has been explored and it has been reported that the arts can have positive effects on patients with mental health problems; for example, by helping their relationships, providing new ways of expression and by bringing about behavioural changes. There is, however, limited research relating specifically to postnatal depression and complementary therapies. The study found that the Time for Me programme created a relaxed, safe space which was experienced as supportive by women who participated in the sessions. Work in various areas of mental health care suggests that creative arts can be used to complement conventional therapy and that complementary therapies may a valuable adjunct to conventional interventions for women with postnatal depression and anxiety. It would, however, be naïve to imagine that a brief intervention such as Time for Me could be a solution for women with more severe depression but it does offer an area worth exploring in more detail.

Adherence to exercise in later life: how can exercise on prescription programmes be made more effective?

A broad consensus has emerged in relation to the desirability of promoting exercise among a variety of 'at risk' groups via 'exercise on prescription' (EoP) schemes, as an alternative to orthodox, biomedical approaches to the management of health problems. Underpinning the rationale for such schemes is the notion that they can act as vehicles for encouraging long-term adherence to exercise. Whilst there is a common sense appeal to using EoP schemes to promote exercise, research to date suggests that evidence of their impact is limited. This paper attempts to make sense of these findings in the light of recent debates about adult lifestyles and exercise. More specifically, it brings work in the sociology of leisure to bear on the topic, on the premise that any study of adults' propensity towards sustainable physical activity needs to be viewed as an aspect of their lives 'in the round'. Such an analysis points up the value of synthesizing perspectives from across the disciplinary divide in order to shed light on particular 'problems', which obviate the necessity for further empirical work. The paper concludes by identifying a number of implications for public health policy and practice with respect to the matter of encouraging lifelong participation in sport and exercise in general, and via EoP schemes in particular. One such implication is the development of a model for understanding participation that shifts the emphasis away from a focus on motivation and behaviour change per se towards satisfaction and enjoyment through the development of skills and relationships. Reconceptualizing the matter of participation in this way is likely to lead not only to a more realistic appreciation of what can be expected from EoP schemes, but also a more adequate understanding of adherence to exercise in later life.